A Small Company Battles Amazon by Creating Community

EDENS, a commercial real estate company, is trying to build online and offline communities for its grocery-based shopping centers to fend off competition from online grocers including Amazon. EDENS has hired a new CIO who plans to use social media to attract busy women to its centers, designed with plenty of spaces for people to socialize in real life,rather than in antiseptic online communities.

“The vision is how can we leverage technology, such as social media, and physical brick and mortar stores to create community,” said EDENS CIO Joyce Vonada, who previously served as senior vice president of IT at Lowe’s Companies.

EDENS CIO Joyce Vonada

EDENS core consumer is women, most of whom work outside the home. “She’s busier than ever but she craves community, so retail has transitioned to building that community,” said Jodie McLean, president and chief investment officer of EDENS. McLean is counting on Vonada to connect shoppers with retailers online in a sophisticated way. “What Joyce brings to us is the ability for better engagement with the consumer,” she told CIO Journal.

Some of Vonada’s first projects will be developing social media campaigns to support some of EDENS new properties, such as Mosaic District, a mixed-use neighborhood in Fairfax County in the Washington, D.C. area, that is full of shops, parks, townhomes, hotel and office space. Parts of Mosaic, including MOM’s Organic Market, Angelika Film Center & Café, and Hyatt House opened earlier this month while other stores will open soon.

McLean says EDENS spends an inordinate amount of time on the physical design of its properties to facilitate community, by paying attention to details such as making sure market aisles are wide enough for neighbors to stop and chat, or by creating spaces for neighborhood festivals, performances, and gatherings — as it did in Mosaic District.

Social media is important, says McLean, because women are making decisions about where to go and spend their time when they’re either at home or in the office. “We have to make sure we’re top of mind, and social media is extremely important,” she says.

Vonada says she found the vision for EDENS compelling and she’s looking forward to having the chance to experiment and innovate. “We’re giving people an opportunity to reconnect – that personal connection is what we miss in a virtual world,” she said. And it’s likely something that Amazon can’t deliver.

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